Rooftop solar panels, costing thousands of dollars, deemed fire hazard

31st July, 2022

By Hannah Walsh, ABC Tropical North

Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-01/rooftop-solar-panels-deemed-fire-hazard-for-mackay-resident/101270742

Ricky Barone installed a solar system on his roof in 2014 to make the most of the North Queensland sun and save money on his electricity bills.

Key points:

• Ricky Barone has been told his installation is a fire hazard but the retailer won’t uninstall it
• A number of regulatory bodies are receiving complaints about solar retailers, manufacturers and installers
• Some of the main issues raised relate to price, quality and high-pressure sales

Since its installation, however, it has cost him thousands of dollars and years of sleepless nights.

It wasn’t until a so-called solar doctorinspected his rooftop panels this year that the Mackay man realised the potential hazardhe…

By Douglas Blair ~

Careful what you say online: Microsoft is listening in.

The tech giant recently implemented some changes to its massively popular game Minecraft. The game currently holds the record for being the bestselling video game of all time, and hundreds of thousands of players are playing at any given moment.

A popular video game might be the canary in the coal mine for Microsoft’s online censorship. Pictured: Logo for the video game Minecraft. (Photo: Microsoft)

In June, Microsoft announced that some new reporting features were coming to the game. Players could snitch on each other, and if a player was found to be in violation of nebulous Community Standards for things like hate speech or threats of violence, that player would be banned from playing online.

“Banned players are not allowed to play on servers, join Realms, host or join multiplayer games, or use the marketplace…

By Craig Rucker ~

Say it ain’t so, Joes!

In 2010, when it looked like Senator Manchin could lose reelection to Republican John Raese, Manchin released a famous ad in which he literally shoots a hole in a climate cap and trade bill.  As a Senator from the energy producing state of West Virginia, he has been looked to as a protector of sound energy and a bulwark against wasteful global warming policy.

Not anymore.  Senator Manchin cut a quiet deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the climate bad news is back.

Sadly, Joe Biden and Joe Manchin’s “Inflation Reduction Act” will do nothing to reduce inflation.

This massive spending bill will, however, stick us with “more inflation, more debt, more supply chain issues, more energy shortages, more blackouts” as CFACT’s Marc Morano explained on the Joe Piscopo show.

The bill spends over $351 billion on the…

Power prices driven through the roof by subsidised and unreliable wind and solar means electricity is out of reach for thousands of struggling households.

Reliable and affordable electricity is at the heart of modern, socially stable societies. Deprive the masses of something that has been taken for granted for generations, and get set for serious civil unrest.

Across Europe, the effect of 20 years of a suicidal obsession with intermittent wind and solar is being keenly felt. Germans suffer the world’s highest power prices and power rationing for German industry is now routine.

Like their compatriots across the ditch, Britain’s energy consumers have been treated with utter contempt by their political betters. But, as the Global Warming Policy Foundation contends below, there is a reckoning in the wind.

As energy crisis threatens civil unrest, new study documents 30 years of the EU’s failed climate policies
The Global Warming Policy Foundation